Post cards from the week end

Here are a few postcards from the weekend.

Saturday we went to the Oley Fair. Oley is one of those small Pennsylvanian towns that's right on the edge of Philadelphia's suburbs and the rural interior. It's a community of old brick buildings surrounded by family farms. The people there are both quaint and cosmopolitan, it's a place where I've had conversations that range from traditional values to fractal geometry.

The Oley Fair is larger than most town fairs but only a fraction of the size of a state fair. So there are plenty of quilts on display as well as farm equipment though I think the John Dear dealer sold more pedal tractors than real ones.





All the children not raised on a farm were amazed to animals that were so much bigger than the family pet.







A prize winning cake decorated in marshmallow peeps. It was local favorite; Bethlehem PA (where the peeps are made) is only a short drive away.

Rides for the kids but thankfully no midway. It was wholesome.







The school orchestra and high school bands played.









A picture from when tail fins rules the world.

No event in Pennsylvania is complete without a car show. Probably no other state has more old cars per square mile than Pennsylvania.

On Sunday we went hiking. This part of Pennsylvania has many mile of trails with plenty more under development. There have been a few cool nights and some of the leaves are beginning to change.

 I kind of feel guilty taking some leisure time myself and my family. It seems that's one of the disappearing perks of the American middle class -a 40 hour work week with a livable wage. Many of my friends are working longer, harder and for less money than they were ten or fifteen years ago. Even friends who are well off and on the cutting edge of the economy find themselves on call 24/7 and quickly burning out.

Who ever said it was good to be working all the time? Take a produce like the i-phone 5. I'm told that less than 6% of the retail price goes to pay for labor and shipping. Would American consumers be willing to pay an extra 4% for their Apple products if it guarantees that Chinese assembly workers don't have to work 60-80 hour work weeks? Would Americans pay an extra 10% to bring that manufacturing to the United States? By the end of next year Apple is projected to be worth over 1 trillion dollars.

A weekend should be right not a privilege. People who are well rested, physically and mentally, are better workers and better citizens. This is not some wild Marxist idea, actually it comes from that crazy radical Henry Ford. Henry Ford grew up on a farm and detested the grind of working seven days a week When he opened the River Rouge plant in South Detroit the starting wage was $5 a day -double the average working wage at that time. Why pay so much? As Henry Ford said you should pay your workers enough so they can afford the products they're making.     


Over the weekend the Phoenixville Art Mural Movement finished their mural on the West End Fire House. Many people got together and each helped a little bit until it was done. They took a plain wall and made it a focus of local pride. This is what some people do with their time off from work.




Ed Roper designed the logo for the Phoenixville Art Mural Movement.

Phoeniville was once an old steel down that almost collapsed when the mill closed down. It's now a vibrant community with a healthy local economy. I plan to write more about Phoenixville and why they are successful and some of the other nearby communities are not.